Jurnal Ilmu Komputer dan Informatika (JIKI) is committed to integrity, objectivity, transparency, and independence throughout the publication process. A conflict of interest (also called a competing interest) exists when financial, professional, academic, institutional, or personal interests could influence, or could reasonably be seen to influence, the conduct of research, the interpretation of results, the peer review process, or editorial decisions.

JIKI requires authors, editors, and reviewers to disclose all relevant conflicts of interest, following the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Having a conflict of interest is not in itself wrongdoing. Failing to disclose it, however, undermines trust in the research and in the publication process.

1. Conflicts of Interest for Authors

Authors must disclose any relationship or interest that could reasonably be seen to influence their research, its results, or the way it is presented. Disclosure should cover the past 36 months and any interests that are known to be forthcoming.

Conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Financial interests, such as:
  • Employment, consultancy, honoraria, or paid advisory roles.
  • Stock ownership or stock options.
  • Royalties or licensing fees.
  • Research grants or sponsorship from organisations that may gain or lose financially from the publication.
• Commercial interests in technology, such as:
  • Developing, owning, or having a stake in software, platforms, AI models, algorithms, hardware, or applications evaluated or discussed in the article.
  • Involvement in start-ups or companies offering competing or related products.
• In-kind support, such as:
  • Free or discounted access to cloud computing services, GPU resources, commercial software licences, APIs, or proprietary datasets provided by companies whose products are relevant to the study.
• Intellectual property, such as patents (held or pending) or other intellectual property rights relating to the methods, systems, or technologies described in the article.
• Professional and institutional relationships, such as affiliations, partnerships, or collaborations that may affect the objectivity of the research. An example is evaluating a system developed by the authors’ own employer or partner organisation.
• Personal and academic relationships, such as family ties, close friendships, academic rivalry, or supervisory relationships that may affect scientific judgement.
• Non-financial interests, such as:
  • Personal, political, or ideological beliefs relevant to the topic.
  • Membership in advisory bodies, standards committees, or organisations with an interest in the outcome of the research.

Authors must submit a conflict of interest statement with their manuscript. If there are no conflicts of interest, authors must explicitly state this.

Disclosing a conflict of interest does not automatically lead to rejection. The editor will assess its relevance and its possible impact on the integrity of the research and the publication process.

2. Conflicts of Interest for Editors

Editors must remain independent and objective in all editorial decisions. Editors must not handle a manuscript if they have a conflict of interest that could affect their judgement of it. Such conflicts include:

• Co-authorship or active research collaboration with any of the authors within the past 36 months.
• Being at the same institution or department as any of the authors.
• A personal relationship or academic rivalry with any of the authors.
• Any financial interest in the outcome of the research.

When a conflict of interest is identified, the editor must disclose it and step away from all decisions on that manuscript. The manuscript is then reassigned to another editor with no conflict of interest.

Manuscripts by editors and editorial board members. Editors and editorial board members may submit manuscripts to JIKI. Such manuscripts are handled by an independent editor and go through the same double-blind peer review process as all other submissions. The editor-author is excluded from any access to, or influence over, the review and decision process for their manuscript. Where appropriate, this is noted in the published article.

3. Conflicts of Interest for Reviewers

Reviewers must tell the editor about any conflict of interest that could affect the independence and objectivity of their review. Reviewers should decline the invitation, or raise the matter with the editor before proceeding, if they:

• Have co-authored or actively collaborated with any of the authors within the past 36 months.
• Are at the same institution as any of the authors.
• Have a close personal relationship or academic rivalry with any of the authors.
• Are working on closely competing research, software, or products, or have a financial interest in the outcome.
• Have previously reviewed the same manuscript for another venue, in which case they should inform the editor.
• Believe they may be able to identify the authors and that this could affect their objectivity.

Reviewers must not use unpublished information, data, methods, or code from a manuscript under review for their own advantage. They must not ask authors to cite the reviewer’s own work unless it is clearly relevant and scientifically justified.

4. Funding Disclosure

Authors must disclose all sources of funding and support for the research, including:

• The name of each funding agency, institution, or company.
• Grant or contract numbers, where available.
• In-kind support, such as computing resources, cloud credits, software licences, or datasets provided by third parties.

Authors must also describe the role of each funder in the study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, writing of the manuscript, and decision to submit for publication. If a funder had no such role, this should be stated.

If the research received no specific funding, authors should state that it received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

5. Declarations in the Manuscript

Conflict of interest and funding statements must be included in the manuscript’s Declarations section, in line with the JIKI Author Guidelines. To preserve double-blind review, identifying details may be provided separately during submission and added to the manuscript after acceptance.

If there are no conflicts of interest:

Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

If there are conflicts of interest:

Conflict of Interest: Author A is employed by [Company Name], which develops [product/system] evaluated in this study. Author B has received consultancy fees from [Organisation]. The other authors declare no competing interests.

Funding examples:

Funding: This research was funded by [Funding Agency] under Grant No. [number]. Computing resources were provided by [Provider]. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Funding: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

6. Handling of Conflicts of Interest

JIKI assesses each disclosure according to its nature, its level of risk, and its possible effect on the integrity of the research or the editorial process. Possible actions include:

• Requesting clarification or further information.
• Requiring an additional or more detailed disclosure statement in the article.
• Reassigning the manuscript to an independent editor.
• Replacing a reviewer.
• Taking other steps needed to keep the publication process objective.

Failure to disclose a material conflict of interest will be handled under JIKI’s Publication Ethics and Allegation of Research Misconduct policies. If an undisclosed conflict is discovered after publication, JIKI may publish a correction, an Expression of Concern, or, in serious cases, a retraction, depending on how much the conflict affects the reliability of the work.

7. Commitment to Transparency

JIKI is committed to handling conflicts of interest fairly, proportionately, and transparently. Disclosure protects the credibility of research, maintains readers’ trust, and ensures that editorial decisions rest on scientific quality and integrity rather than personal or group interests.